Hospitals require that all hard surfaces in patient and treatment rooms be cleaned and disinfected. Targeted soils include, but are not limited to, biological soils that contain protein, such as blood. A two-step process is used to clean such soils from hard surfaces, one step for cleaning and another for disinfecting.
Cleaning the biological soils/blood routinely involves disposable wet wipes and/or non-disposable cloths that must be sanitized by laundering. Biological soils can be anywhere in the room, making cleanup with a wet wipe or cloth rather challenging (e.g. walls, equipment, connecting cables, etc.). After cleaning the biological soils from all hard surfaces, the same surfaces must be disinfected to eliminate infectious microorganisms left behind by biological soils. With an increase in multi-drug resistant organisms such as MRSA, there is a mandated time in which the disinfectant must make contact with infectious microorganisms.
Commonly, two staff members are needed to both clean and disinfect the room. This scenario is time consuming and costly.
There is a need for a less cumbersome and cost-effective method for cleaning and disinfecting biological soils or other contaminants from hard surfaces.